Rumination was assessed via the brooding and reflection subscales of the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS; Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1999). The brooding sub- scale, consisting of 5 items (Cronbach's alpha ¼ .80 in the present sample), assesses the tendency to focus passively on the reasons for a person's distress, while re- flection, consisting of 5 items (Cronbach's alpha ¼ .79 in the present sample), assesses the tendency to engage in cognitive problem-solving to improve one’s mood (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1999; Treynor et al., 2003). The RRS was used to pre-select participants and classify them based on levels of brooding and reflection, as de- scribed above, and was also re-administered at the time of the study. The test– retest reliability of RRS scores for the current study was.78 for brooding and.66 for reflection.